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A Study of Revelation

Chapter Nineteen

 May 09, 2007

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

Revelation 19:11-21

 

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

 

John is continuing to write down those things that he saw while he is on the isle of Patmos.  We talked briefly about many things that will happen here during the seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy, or The Time of Jacob's Trouble the Bible says, or the Day of Great Tribulation as Jesus refers to it as.  We could take four or five years just to go through this book to see some of things that are here and even with that, we would not be able to scratch the surface of the things that are here. 

 

Sunday we talked about the marriage supper of the Lamb where we are in heaven and made ourselves ready.  We talked about how important it is for us to live right in this life, making ourselves ready.  We are preparing or making our own wedding gown because of how that we are living here on planet earth today and our faithfulness to God. 

 

When we get to verse eleven, the Bible says:  "And I saw heaven opened..."  If you go back to Revelation chapter four, we see the same thing.  John makes the statement, "Behold a door is open in heaven..."  John is seeing a door open in heaven in Revelation chapter four.  He is seeing the church go to heaven.  In Revelation chapter four, we are seeing the rapture of the church. 

 

When we get to Revelation chapter nineteen in verse eleven, John says, "...I saw heaven opened..."  There was a door opened in Revelation chapter four for the church to go to heaven.  We have been there for approximately seven years and now we see a door open and we are going to see the church leaving heaven and coming back to planet earth.  This is at the end of Tribulation. 

 

From chapter six down through chapter nineteen, we see between 66 and 75 percent of the earth's population killed.  We are probably looking at three to four billion people, if we have six billion people upon planet earth today; four billion people have died in this seven-year period.  Slaughter, starvation, and epidemics like those that we have never saw before. 

 

We talked about the nuclear weapons and nuclear exchange we saw when some of the seals were opened and the trumpets were blown.  Jesus Christ made the statement "except those days be shortened there would be no flesh saved."  What Jesus was meaning, "If I do not come back, and if I do not stop mankind; mankind would destroy themselves from planet earth."  That is what Jesus is saying.  We know that the Lord is not going to allow that.  We know that He has a plan to let people know on planet earth that He is God and He is going to do that.  He is going to let men know that He is God, and that He is the creator.  He is going to take control here on planet earth.

 

 

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

 

When we see the white horse, it is not the same white horse as we were introduced to back in Revelation chapter six when the first seal is opened.  We know that the rider of the first white horse is the anti-christ.  We know that he is going to come and does great things before men, as far as, calling fire down from heaven.  We know that he does much to get men to follow him.  The Bible says that the whole world follows off after him.  We know that for a short time when he comes on the scene, that there will be a time of peace and prosperity, but that is very short lived.  he leads the world into an all out world war. 

 

Here we are seeing Jesus Christ on the white horse.  When a king rode a white stallion, he was conquering king.  He was coming a conquering leader; as someone who has conquered, or is going to conquer. 

 

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was not riding a white stallion.  He was riding a donkey, a beast of burden.  It is a very humble animal, an animal of peace. 

 

We see Jesus Christ leaving heaven at the end of Tribulation period, near the end of the battle of Armageddon.  When all nations are going to be gathered against Jerusalem and against Israel.  If we look at all the armies that are left, we see red china, we see all the Arab nations that are going to left, as well as, Russia, Egypt and other nations that are going to be there.  They are all going to be converging toward this little nation of Israel with one thing in mind: destruction. 

 

God has other plans.  He has plans for the city of Jerusalem, plans for Israel and also planet earth.  The Bible says:

 

...a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

 

What God is going to do here as the world looks at it, they say this is going to be inhumane, "how could a God of Love do what He is about to do?"  God is a God of Love.  God has given mankind six thousand years to repent.  He has given him time and space to repent.  Also through the Tribulation period, He has given men time to repent.  Judgment after Judgment has come, but still the grace of God was there.  The longsuffering was there.  He has given man time to repent.  The masses did not repent.  They actually just cursed God. 

 

Instead of repenting, they cursed God.  We know that He has the right to come, to judge, and to make war.  The Bible says that He is faithful and true.  We know that God is faithful.  We know that He is True.  There is nothing false about Him.  God never does anything that is unfaithful.  What He is doing here is right.  It says here that He comes in righteousness.  He judges and makes war.  There is going to come a time when the grace of God is going to stop.  He is going to say no more.  I am not going to give men here on planet earth any more time to repent.  I am going to say it is time to judge men.  That does not make God a bad person.  That makes God a just God. 

 

If God did not come back and judge man for their sin then He would not be a God of Love and a God of Truth; a God that is filled with righteousness.   The old world  that was here, when they sinned against God, God gave them time to repent.  They did not repent therefore, God sent judgment. 

 

There was a time that God winked at ignorance, but today He commands everyone to repent.  God wants men to repent.  You remember this.  You write it down.  You might say I do not believe it.  You might say God would never do that.  There is going to come a time that it is going to be too late for you to be saved.  There is going to come a time that it is going to be too late for men to repent.  When we get here to this chapter when we get to these verses, Jesus Christ is coming to judge and to make war.  There is not going to be any more time for men to repent because that time is going to be gone.

 

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

 

When you look at the word fire in the scriptures, fire brings out the idea of judgment.  As He is leaving heaven, He has one thing on His mind, and that is Judgment.  He is True.  He is coming in Righteousness to judge and to make war.  He has the right to do what He is going to do.  He has the authority to do this. 

 

This place belongs to Him.  He has created us and He has given men all kinds of time to repent.  When John looks at His eyes, John sees judgment. 

 

The Bible says that upon His head were many crowns.  I do not know how we could explain the many crowns that He may be wearing because He is worthy of all of them; every crown that He is crowned with, He is worthy of them all.  It is talking about Him being the ruler, being the one that is going to come and make a war.  Not just one crown, but many crowns; showing His authority. 

 

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

 

How could we not understand who that is?  How could we not understand who that would be?  We know that the Bible tells us very plainly that He is the Truth, the Way and the Life.  He is the Creator.  He is called faithful and true.  There could be no doubt in our minds who this is talking about.  He is talking about the One sitting upon the white horse is none other than Jesus Christ. 

 

How do we really know that Jesus Christ is leaving heaven and going to do all of that? 

 

If you take a poll, if you will read studies today of the major denominations in America—Baptists included—what you will find is that over 50 percent of those religious people do not believe that Jesus Christ is actually going to come back physically to planet earth.  They do not believe that.

 

Turn your Bible to the book of Acts, chapter one.  Jesus has died, in Acts chapter one; He is giving His disciples a brief lesson in some things.  However, if you go down to verse nine, after He finishes talking, it says:

 

 

9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

 

In other words, they are looking into the heaven.  They see Jesus and the cloud receiving Him.  He is going toward the heaven and two angels are standing by that say, "Guys what are you looking at?"  They were standing there.  They saw Him received by a cloud.  He disappears into the clouds and He goes into the heaven.  They saw His body, and they saw Him physically.  They knew who He was and they were talking to Him.  He goes into heaven.  He leaves from the Mount of Olives.  That is important because if you read Zach. 14, it tells us that Jesus Christ one day is coming right back to the Mount of Olives.  “…this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

 

Go to Revelation 19 and we see Him leaving heaven.  We see Him riding a white horse.  He is coming back to the Mount of Olives.  That is where He is coming to.  That is where He left.  He is coming with a body that we are going to be able to see.  Revelation 1 says every eye shall see Him, even those that pierced Him. 

 

The disciples saw Him when He ascended.  He is coming back the same way that He left.  He is coming back on a white horse.  He is coming with a body.  He is coming back when this world is going to be able to see Him.  This all fits together.  All the pieces fit together if we just look at some things here and we can understand what God is doing.  God has a plan and everything that God has said two, three, four thousand years ago, that God said that He was going to do in the last days; God is going to do.  It is exciting when we look at that. 

 

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

 

He has blood on His clothes and if you look at what is going to transpire down here you will understand why. 

 

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

 

Revelation 19:8

 

8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

 

This is talking about the bride (us), and our garments.  It talks about that we had fine linen, clean and white.  That is what we were wearing when we get down to verse 14 where the armies of heaven are following Him.  The Bible says that they are upon white horses clothed in fine linen, clean and white.  Who is following Him?  You and I are.  We are coming back to planet earth with Him. 

 

I know that we think that this is really all there is when we die, we go to heaven and we are just going to sit around playing harps all the time, or with our feet in the river.  That is not that case at all.  We have some things to do.  There are going to be some things that we are going to be doing after life comes physically to an end on planet earth.  We go to heaven, the marriage supper of the Lamb, and now we are coming back.  The armies of heaven are with Him upon white horses.  They are dressed in fine linen, clean and white.  All of the Old Testament saints, the tribulation saints, the church age from Pentecost till the rapture; we all are coming back with Him.  No doubt millions upon million upon millions of us will be following Him back to planet earth.  We will be assisting Him in the judgment, in the ruling and reigning here on planet earth during the millennium. 

 

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

 

When we look at the Bible and read the book of Hebrews in chapter four, it talks about the Word of God being quick, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.  What is coming out of His mouth is the Word of God.  Men have heard the Word of God.  They have heard God speak.  They have heard God's men speak.  They have heard God's name and God's message sung in songs.  They have heard it for thousands and thousands of years and they have rejected God's Word of Grace.  The grace is going to be over and He is going to be coming here with the same Word, but in judgment.

 

The Bible says, "...out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations..."  He is going to smite the nations with the Word of God; with the Word that proceedeth out of His mouth.  The earth was created by His Word.  He is not as we are. 

 

If I am going to build something, I first need something to build with.  God does not have to have that.  God just says that this is what I am going to do and this is what I will, and its there.  If you read the scriptures, many times He just said the Word and people were healed.  When Lazarus was raised from the dead, He just spoke His Word.  We can read so many times when Jesus just simply spoke His Word and people were healed.  There is power in His Word to save and to judge.  That is the sad thing about it, is that a lot of good folks that meant well, that made all kinds plans on making things right with God, they are going to be left behind because they have never been born again.  They are going to face the wrath of Almighty God. 

 

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

 

God is going to judge mankind here on planet earth.  The time of mercy and grace are gone when we get here. 

 

It brings out the idea of a winepress.  You put grapes into a winepress.  You get in there and you tramp them down then the grape juice would run out.  It is going to be a very sad time upon planet earth when Jesus Christ comes back at the end of Tribulation period to judge this world.  It is going to be a horrible time for all those folks left behind.  The sad part is that they are going to try to keep Jesus Christ and us from coming back.  That is not going to happen.

 

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

 

Did you ever think about that?  There is no king greater than Him.  There is no Lord any greater than Him.  There is no master any greater than Him.  He is the highest.  There is no authority any higher than Him. 

 

The reason that is so important is that we see all the powers of the world here.  They are going to be gathered together in one little spot over here.  I do not remember how wide, or how long it was, but they are going to be gathered together; some of the military, smartest men, greatest leaders are going to be gathered together to try to get rid of this little nation called Israel. 

 

What they do not understand is that King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords is going to fight for this little nation.  They are not going to destroy Israel.  That is the theme today of the radical Muslims as they call them. 

 

However, that is not going to happen because they are God's chosen people.  Two thirds of them are going to be destroyed.  He is going to bring one third of them through the fire.  That place is going to blow up.  However, God is going to preserve that place because He has plans for Jerusalem. 

 

Do not think, like some of the people we listen to on TV that we can turn our backs on Israel and God will bless us.  When America turns our back on Israel then we are doomed. 

 

Go back to Genesis 12 where God says that I am going to bless those that bless you and I am going to curse those that curse you.  God said that when He was talking unto Abraham.  That might have been four thousand years ago, but that does not change the fact how that we deal with the nation of Israel determines our destiny as far as the nation goes.

 

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

 

We have had the marriage supper of the Lamb in the first part of chapter nineteen.  Now we are going to have the supper of the Great God.  The angel is summonsing all the fowls, the birds on planet earth to come to one place because there is going to be a bunch of people die.  There is going to be a bunch of flesh that needs to be eaten here where it is at because of what is going to happen.  He summons all the fowls of the air to come.  "...gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God..."  That tells us who is doing these things is the God of heaven. 

 

18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

 

Many years ago, I was teaching and talking about that.  Talking about eating the flesh of horses and there was a woman that was a horse lover and I like horses too, but she got upset because of when we talked about that.  However, God is summonsing all the fowls to come because He is about to make war upon the anti-christ and all of his armies.  The ten nations from Europe, the revised Roman Empire, they are all going to be here.  There will be millions and millions of people here that are going to die.  That is the reason that He is calling the fowls of the air.

 

19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

 

As I said earlier, as Jesus Christ leaves heaven and we leave heaven with Him.  They are going to be able to see, "...I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army..."  When we leave heaven and we are coming back toward planet earth, the armies and all the kings are going to see us coming.  Jesus was seen by the disciples, as in Acts chapter one, they were able to see Him go into heaven.  The angels that stood there said, “…as He goes into heaven He is going to likewise come back again.”  People that are going to be here are going to be able to see us coming back to planet earth.  They say that they are coming together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.  They are going to try to keep Jesus Christ and His army from coming back to planet earth.  It is something how brazen some people are thinking that they can just overrule God.  They really believe this.  They think that they can make war with Jesus and keep Him and us from coming back, but it is not going to happen. 

 

20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

 

The first thing that is going to happen when we come from heaven, is that Jesus Christ is going to take the beast, the Roman anti-christ and the false prophet, the one that has been going around and saying that this guy that is in Rome is god.  He is going to take the beast and the false prophet and cast them alive into a lake of fire.

 

There is not going to be any question whether they are guilty or not.  There is not going to be any question whether they deserve to be there, or not because if you read that one verse, they have deceived many people.  They deceive many people.   Many people have received the anti-christ number on their hand or upon their forehead.  The beast and false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire.  That is going to happen.  Before things can progress into the millennium and before we can have peace on earth and good will toward men, some things have to happen.  We will read chapter 20 later on and see other things that are going to happen.

 

21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

 

Millions upon millions upon millions are going to die when Jesus Christ comes.  The anti-christ and his armies are going to be shooting their missiles at us and they are going to be firing lasers at us.  They are going to do everything they can to prevent us from coming back to planet earth.  Jesus Christ is coming back to the Mount of Olives where He left.  He is coming back to judge and to make war.  He is back to make claim and take control of planet earth.  He is going to do that.  Millions are going to die in this one event when He comes back. 

 

Be of good courage, because we are the victors.  The faithful, the saved, the born again, the righteous, we are the victors.  We are the ones that have won the battle.  We are the ones that will be fighting with our Lord when He comes back to take control of planet earth. 

 

It would be my prayer, if you are not saved, to find a place to pray to make things right with the Lord today because He is coming very soon. 

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